


I Wrote My Way Out

by MaddieandChimney



Category: 9-1-1 (TV)
Genre: F/M, Implied/Referenced Domestic Violence, Violence
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-25
Updated: 2020-06-25
Packaged: 2021-03-04 03:33:59
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 825
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24916912
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MaddieandChimney/pseuds/MaddieandChimney
Summary: Doug doesn't find Maddie until she serves him with the divorce papers and by then, it's too late.
Relationships: Maddie Buckley/Doug Kendall, Maddie Buckley/Howie "Chimney" Han
Comments: 4
Kudos: 13





	I Wrote My Way Out

Maddie knows that the day Doug gets served with the divorce papers, it’s quite possibly the most dangerous thing she’s ever done. Even more so than she day she left the house under the pretence she was going to work, only to never go back. But it has to be done because she knows if she’s ever going to be completely free, that means cutting all ties with her husband.

She tries to put on a brave face, discussing it with her brother before she hands the divorce papers to Chimney to make sure he knows that she is finally ready to go beyond a friendship with him. Months of shy smiles, gentle lips against his cheek, hands awkwardly brushing against each other’s had eventually turned into snuggling on the couch, not-so-subtle flirting, and hours of flowing conversation.

He makes her laugh, there’s not an ounce of fear when his hand moves towards her to brush her hair from her face. She never walks on eggshells around him, never has to worry about saying or doing the wrong thing, terrified of the consequences. She finally feels like… like Maddie again.

Maddie is confident when she asks him on a date, trying to ignore the way her heart is thumping against her chest. Confidence. It’s not something she’s been familiar with, until she looks into Chimney’s eyes and she _knows_ he wants to be more than friends just as much as she does. The way he smiles at her, how safe he makes her feel, how _worthy_ she feels of finally feeling some sense of happiness.

The papers have been served by the time Chimney turns up at the door, a nervous smile on his face and flowers in his hands. And she realises, not for the first time, that what she feels when she looks at him is hope. Hope that she can leave Doug behind, hope that she can have a future with Chimney when once, she hadn’t even thought a future in its entirety was at all possible.

And honestly, when her lips are against Chimney’s and his hand is on her hip at the end of the night after an amazing date, she _forgets_ about how terrified she was to let Doug know where she was. He stays the night and although nothing happens between them aside from gentle kisses, arms and legs wrapping around each other’s as they lay on their sides and just hold each other, it’s the most loved and safe she’s felt in years.

Maddie knows better than to expect her husband to sign the divorce papers straight away, without a fight. She’s not asking for anything from him – he can have it all, the house, the money, she doesn’t want anything that reminds her of the marriage she was lucky to escape from with her life. But still, in the days that pass since she knows he’s been served, she’s on edge. Every passing hour that she doesn’t hear from her lawyer is another hour he could be closer to LA, but she decides not to voice her fears aloud. Instead, she revels in the feeling of being able to kiss Chimney when she wants because really, that’s the only thing that’s changed between them.

It shouldn’t come as a surprise to her that the moment she’s at her happiest, is the moment her husband comes. Maddie let’s her guard down when it’s been a week and she still hasn’t seen or heard from Doug. So, she allows herself to believe – even if only for a second – that he’s going to leave her alone, that maybe he’s going to live his life and she can finally live hers.

Clinging onto the hope that she can finally have a good life, one that was robbed of her when she was nineteen years old and fell in love with the budding doctor with a charming smile, who knew all the right words to say, all the right things to do to make a naïve, desperate young Maddie fall in love with him. For just a little while, she looks into Chimney’s eyes and feels his lips against her skin, and she forgets that Doug once told her that there was only one way out.

“Maddie.”

She’d know that voice anywhere, the way he says her name, how her body reacts before her mind can catch up. But when it comes crashing down on her, all at once, his fist colliding with her face as though no time has passed at all, all she feels is entirely _stupid_ for ever believing he would just let her live. “Did you really think I wouldn’t find you?” His voice is laced with anger, that familiar bitterness she’s so used to hearing, causing that self-loathing inside of her to grow because really, for a second, she thought he wouldn’t.

“I told you how this ends, Maddie. You just… you never learn, do you?”


End file.
